2025 AFC U-20 Asian Cup

The 2025 AFC U-20 Asian Cup was the 42nd edition of the AFC U-20 Asian Cup (including previous editions of the AFC Youth Championship and AFC U-19 Championship), the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-20 national teams of Asia.

2025 AFC U-20 Asian Cup
2025年亚足联U-20亚洲杯

Tournament details
Host country	China
Dates	12 February – 1 March
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue	4 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Australia (1st title)
Runners-up	Saudi Arabia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	93 (3 per match)
Attendance	44,626 (1,440 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Kim Tae-won Mukhammadali Urinboev (4 goals each)
Best player	Alexander Badolato
Best goalkeeper	Hamed Al-Shanqiti
Fair play award	Australia
← 2023 2027 →

On 24 May 2024, the AFC announced that China would host the tournament.

A total of 16 teams played in the tournament. The top four teams qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile as the AFC representatives.

Uzbekistan were the title holders, having won the title in 2023. They were eliminated on penalties by South Korea in the quarter-finals. Australia clinched their first major youth title since joining the AFC, overcoming three-time winners Saudi Arabia on penalties.

Qualification

Qualification matches were played between 21 and 29 September 2024.

Qualified teams

A total of 16 teams, including hosts China, qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Appearance	Previous best performance
China	Hosts	20th	Champions (1985)
Syria	Group A winners	12th	Champions (1994)
Uzbekistan	Group B winners	9th	Champions (2023)
South Korea	Group C winners	40th	Champions (1959, 1960, 1963, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2012)
Saudi Arabia	Group D winners	15th	Champions (1986, 1992, 2018)
North Korea	Group E winners	14th	Champions (1976, 2006, 2010)
Indonesia	Group F winners	20th	Champions (1961)
Iran	Group G winners	22nd	Champions (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976)
Iraq	Group H winners	19th	Champions (1975, 1977, 1978, 1988, 2000)
Japan	Group I winners	39th	Champions (2016)
Qatar	Group J winners	16th	Champions (2014)
Yemen	1st best runners-up	8th	Quarter-finals (1975)
Kyrgyzstan	2nd best runners-up	3rd	Group stage (2006, 2023)
Australia	3rd best runners-up	9th	Runners-up (2010)
Thailand	4th best runners-up	34th	Champions (1962, 1969)
Jordan	5th best runners-up	9th	Fourth place (2006)

Venues

The competition was held in four venues around Shenzhen.

Shenzhen
Bao'an	Guangming		Longhua
Bao'an Stadium	Shenzhen Youth Football Training Base Centre Stadium	Shenzhen Youth Football Training Base Pitch No.1	Longhua Cultural and Sports Center
Capacity: 40,000	Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 500	Capacity: 2,364

Shenzhen

Match officials

The tournament implemented video assistant referees (VAR), a first in the tournament's history, starting from the semi-finals onwards.

Referees

Alex King
Ammar Mahfoodh
Shen Yinhao
Thoriq Alkatiri
Zaid Thamer Mohammed
Hiroki Kasahara
Abdullah Jamali
Qasim Al-Hatmi
Abdulhadi Al-Rowaily
Choi Hyun-jai
Ahmed Eisa Darwish
Asker Nadjafaliev

Assistant referees

James Lindsay
Mohamed Salman
Guo Jingtao
Luo Zheng
So Kai Man
Bangbang Syamsudar
Hayder Ubaydee
Takagi Takumi
Ali Jraq
Nasser Al-Busaidi
Khaled Khalaf
Cheon Jin-hee
Ismoil Nuraliev
Kijsathit Pattarapong
Yasser Al-Murshidi
Ruslan Serazitdinov

Draw

The draw of the final tournament was held on 7 November 2024 in Shenzhen, China. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams, with the teams seeded according to their performance in the 2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup final tournament and qualification, with the hosts China automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
China (hosts) Uzbekistan Iraq Japan	South Korea Australia Iran Jordan	Indonesia Saudi Arabia Syria Kyrgyzstan	Qatar Thailand Yemen North Korea

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 2005 and on or before 31 December 2009 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team must register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers.

Group stage

Tiebreakers

Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams were tied and they met in the last round of the group;
Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
Drawing of lots.

All match times are in local time, (UTC+8)

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Australia	3	3	0	10	3	+7	9	Knockout stage
2	China (H)	3	2	1	8	5	+3	6	Knockout stage
3	Qatar	3	1	2	6	5	+1	3
4	Kyrgyzstan	3	0	3	3	14	−11	0

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

12 February 2025